Update: 70 of 90 Missing Motorcycle Racers Found in Kalimantan

Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan. Rescuers have managed to find 70 motorcycle racers previously reported missing in the depths of an East Kalimantan jungle, but 20 others remained missing as of Sunday evening.

“About 20 others are still declared missing. The evacuation team has continued to search for them by tracking the route set by the steering committee of the [race],” the head of the Kutai Kartanegara office of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), Darmansyah, said on Sunday.

He corrected a previous figure that put the number of race participants at 805, saying there were only about 700 of them, and only 193 people took the route through Tahura forest in the East Kalimantan district of Kutai Kartanegara.

At least one man from Australia died on Saturday during the two-day enduro racing event.

Headley Michael Adrian, 35, was among racers participating in the “Balikpapan Two Days Enduro 2,” which kicked off on Saturday to commemorate the 116th anniversary of the East Kalimantan city of Balikpapan’s founding.

Adrian was believed to have died of dehydration in the middle of a 124-kilometer extreme track connecting Balikpapan and the capital city of Samarinda through the depths of the Tahura jungle.

Mugiono, an official with the East Kalimantan office of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), earlier said Adrian’s remains were taken early on Sunday morning to Kanujoso Djatiwibowo Hospital in Balikpapan for an autopsy.

“We don’t know for sure yet whether he was found dead at the location or died during the evacuation,” Mugiono told the Jakarta Globe.

Some 40 Basarnas officers and dozens of Army officers were dispatched to find those who remained missing, he added on Sunday afternoon, at which time there were 90 racers whose whereabouts were still unknown.